Our PTO pays $10.00 per child each year. The trip must be between school hours and then the BOE will schedule the bus or buses needed. Teachers are aware that if they select a trip that is more than $10.00 per child, they must send a notice home explaining the higher cost of the trip & request parents to pick up the balance. If parents cannot afford it, I've been told by the principal that they have a fund that they dip into to pick up the extra cost for those children. However, for the most part, teachers have stayed within the $10 limit every year I've been at the school (6 years)
However, the intention of going on trips should have been told to you at the start of the year so that you could have budgeted for that. If you didn't budget for trips, that a huge expense to have to raise last minute.
I've seen messages posted like this so many times here where staff or principals feel they can just come in and dictate the use of the money without respecting the bylaws governing the PTO, the expenses already budgeted for the year and the fact that the budget was passed at the start of the year. Then the PTO member posting the issue is in a panic & stressing over it when it is the problem of the principal, in my opinion. He/She needs to follow the rules same as any PTO member!

As you can see everyone does it differently. In our case we pay for their entire class trip. They have a $1,000 budget per grade that is factored into our budget each year. Our group takes care of K-3 so it is $4,000 of our budget each year on class trips. The prinicpal approves their trips at the beginning of each year after he accesses they are within their $1,000 budget.

My suggestion to you would be to work out with the principal what role your group can/should play in funding the trip. You really need to know ahead of time so you can budget for these expenses. The principal should also know where you stand financially so there are no expectations on your group that are out of your realm of possibility.

Our PTO gives $125 per classroom to be used for field trips. They can use it for admission, busses or lunch at McDonalds - but it's to be used for Field Trips and once it's gone - it's gone.

Our transportation company recently doubled their charges. It cost our first graders $700 to visit a museum in Chicago for two hours. The teachers requested that we double our funding to match the increase and we had to tell them no. There's no way we could do another $2700 this year.

Unfortunately, the balance has to fall to the parents.

Our school budgets for busses and then asks families to pitch in admission fees or ticket prices. The pto only gets asked in the even of financial hardship. We made it a policy several years back to only pay for programs that come into the school, not field trips.

Our PTO pays $10-$13 per student, per year depending on how the budget is that year. If a trip costs more, the teacher either asks for parents to pay balance or they sell cookie dough to help off set costs.

I would be concerned if the principal is not forthcoming with info because these things have to be planned in advance so surely he/she knows where and when by this point in the year.

My last PTO paid $5/student. The BOE covered the cost of the school bus and driver for one trip per class. Anything over that was paid for by the parents.